Forget microchips. Silicon Valley sees a profitable future in the humble brick thanks to a low-energy production process that illustrates the greening of the US technology capital.
Brick maker Calstar Products is backed by venture capitalists whose vision is to create buildings less expensively and in a way that saves energy. “We think it is time for a second industrial revolution,” said Paul Holland, a partner at Foundation Capital, which invested $7 million in Calstar. EnerTech Capital led another round that raised $8 million for the business.
Currently about 40% of US energy use goes toward the heating, cooling and general operation of buildings. Silicon Valley is finding high-tech ways to make ageold materials, pursuing carbon dioxide-eating concrete, windows that insulate better than walls, and wood substitutes.
The field is still new. Venture investments in green buildings have waxed and waned with the recession, but involved 45 deals worth about $350 million the past year, according to Cleantech Group LLC.
Bricks have been made pretty much the same way for 3,000 years, until Calstar’s scientists came up with their new technique, said Chief Executive Michael Kane. Ordinary bricks are fired for 24 hours at 1,100°C as part of a process that can last a week, while Calstar bricks are baked at temperatures below 100°C and take only 10 hours from start to finish, Kane said.
Lower energy costs mean higher profit, allowing the company to pay for its research and compete against large companies that have economies of scale. The new bricks — which the Brick Industry Association says are not actually bricks — will sell for the same price as traditional claybased ones.
Agencies
Showing posts with label Chips. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Chips. Show all posts
Thursday, September 24, 2009
Sunday, August 23, 2009
Is Intel set to acquire two software firms?
Intel has quietly snapped up two software companies in the last 30 days with aim of boosting development of applications that take better advantage of chips with more than one processing core.
In a company blog, the chipmaker indicated the acquisition of Cilk at the end of last month and then Rapidmind earlier this week. Both are small companies that employ under than 50 people. The acquisitions follow the purchase of software company Wind River Systems in June.
"Over the last few years, there has been a gradual emergence of multicore microprocessors. It's put parallelism in more and more machines," James Reinders, chief evangelist and director of marketing and sales at Intel, said in a phone interview Friday, explaining why Intel bought the two firms.
"If you look at traditional applications, ones that we use everyday, it's fair to say that most are not exploiting parallelism--at least not to the full extent," Reinders said.
A multicore processor is defined as any chip with more than one processing core. Today, almost all Intel chips that go into laptops, desktops, and servers have at least two cores. The challenge for Intel is to make sure that applications take advantage of all the cores--so-called parallelism. This has historically presented a challenge for software programmers.
"The operating system does stuff for applications in parallel," Reinders said, referring to operating systems such as Windows. "But considering that we can produce more and more cores every year, to truly get the benefit of what the future holds, applications need to change. And most applications haven't changed," he said.
The goal is to facilitate the development of parallel programming. "How do we help software developers tackle parallel programming? Both companies had teams of experts that had been focused on this problem. So, they're kindred spirits," he said.
Writing about Cilk in a blog, Reinders said Intel sees "great opportunities for Cilk to integrate with our parallel tools...including Intel Parallel Studio." The firm's technology enables "mainstream programmers to develop multithreaded (or parallel) applications...Providing a smooth path to multicore for legacy (older) applications that otherwise cannot easily leverage the performance capabilities of multicore processors," according to Cilk's Web site. Original Cilk research was done at MIT.
Rapidmind was founded five years ago as Serious Hack and grew out of work at the University of Waterloo. It boasts advanced technology for helping software developers with data parallel programming for multicore processors and accelerators.
The cost of the two acquisitions was not disclosed.
CNET.com
In a company blog, the chipmaker indicated the acquisition of Cilk at the end of last month and then Rapidmind earlier this week. Both are small companies that employ under than 50 people. The acquisitions follow the purchase of software company Wind River Systems in June.
"Over the last few years, there has been a gradual emergence of multicore microprocessors. It's put parallelism in more and more machines," James Reinders, chief evangelist and director of marketing and sales at Intel, said in a phone interview Friday, explaining why Intel bought the two firms.
"If you look at traditional applications, ones that we use everyday, it's fair to say that most are not exploiting parallelism--at least not to the full extent," Reinders said.
A multicore processor is defined as any chip with more than one processing core. Today, almost all Intel chips that go into laptops, desktops, and servers have at least two cores. The challenge for Intel is to make sure that applications take advantage of all the cores--so-called parallelism. This has historically presented a challenge for software programmers.
"The operating system does stuff for applications in parallel," Reinders said, referring to operating systems such as Windows. "But considering that we can produce more and more cores every year, to truly get the benefit of what the future holds, applications need to change. And most applications haven't changed," he said.
The goal is to facilitate the development of parallel programming. "How do we help software developers tackle parallel programming? Both companies had teams of experts that had been focused on this problem. So, they're kindred spirits," he said.
Writing about Cilk in a blog, Reinders said Intel sees "great opportunities for Cilk to integrate with our parallel tools...including Intel Parallel Studio." The firm's technology enables "mainstream programmers to develop multithreaded (or parallel) applications...Providing a smooth path to multicore for legacy (older) applications that otherwise cannot easily leverage the performance capabilities of multicore processors," according to Cilk's Web site. Original Cilk research was done at MIT.
Rapidmind was founded five years ago as Serious Hack and grew out of work at the University of Waterloo. It boasts advanced technology for helping software developers with data parallel programming for multicore processors and accelerators.
The cost of the two acquisitions was not disclosed.
CNET.com
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
Will IBM develop future chips with DNA?
Scientists from IBM and California Institute of Technology are trying to build the next generation chips- smaller and more powerful, with the combination of DNA and nanotechnology. The experimental breakthrough can be a step toward developing a new technique for making smaller microprocessors beyond the traditional manufacturing processes.
In the past few years, chipmakers have been able to make tinier and powerful products, but this advancement has also pushed the limits of manufacturing techniques. According to IBM, "The revolutionary method, developed at its Almaden Research Center in California and the California Institute of Technology, can help it to make computer chips from the molecule, by arranging DNA structures on the surface of manufactured semiconductor material." Microchips are mainly used in computers, mobile phones and a broad range of electronic devices and, as chipmakers compete to develop ever-smaller chips at cheaper prices, designers are struggling to cut costs.
Spike Narayan, Research Manager, IBM said, "The biological structures like DNA actually offer some very reproducible, repetitive kinds of patterns that we can actually leverage in semiconductor processes. The combination of this directed self-assembly with today's fabrication technology for high-resolution positioning of nano-objects eventually can lead to substantial savings in the most expensive and challenging part of the chip making process." This combination can also help processor designers to keep pace with Moore's Law - the 40-plus-year-old prediction by Gordon Moore that the number of transistors on a chip will double every two years.
The cost involved in shrinking features to improve performance is a limiting factor in keeping pace with Moore's Law and a concern across the semiconductor industry. Currently, the semiconductor industry is able to make processors using 22 nanometer manufacturing technology. IBM is also looking for the DNA to act as scaffolds or miniature circuit boards for the highly precise assembly of chip components, like nanotubes, nanowires and nanoparticles. After using this technique, manufacturers are likely to build 'significantly smaller' chips than has been possible with current semiconductor fabrication technology.
Agencies
In the past few years, chipmakers have been able to make tinier and powerful products, but this advancement has also pushed the limits of manufacturing techniques. According to IBM, "The revolutionary method, developed at its Almaden Research Center in California and the California Institute of Technology, can help it to make computer chips from the molecule, by arranging DNA structures on the surface of manufactured semiconductor material." Microchips are mainly used in computers, mobile phones and a broad range of electronic devices and, as chipmakers compete to develop ever-smaller chips at cheaper prices, designers are struggling to cut costs.
Spike Narayan, Research Manager, IBM said, "The biological structures like DNA actually offer some very reproducible, repetitive kinds of patterns that we can actually leverage in semiconductor processes. The combination of this directed self-assembly with today's fabrication technology for high-resolution positioning of nano-objects eventually can lead to substantial savings in the most expensive and challenging part of the chip making process." This combination can also help processor designers to keep pace with Moore's Law - the 40-plus-year-old prediction by Gordon Moore that the number of transistors on a chip will double every two years.
The cost involved in shrinking features to improve performance is a limiting factor in keeping pace with Moore's Law and a concern across the semiconductor industry. Currently, the semiconductor industry is able to make processors using 22 nanometer manufacturing technology. IBM is also looking for the DNA to act as scaffolds or miniature circuit boards for the highly precise assembly of chip components, like nanotubes, nanowires and nanoparticles. After using this technique, manufacturers are likely to build 'significantly smaller' chips than has been possible with current semiconductor fabrication technology.
Agencies
Friday, January 23, 2009
Intel to shut sites in Malaysia, Philippines; To layoff 6,000 jobs
Intel Corp said on Wednesday it would close manufacturing plants in Malaysia and the Philippines, as well as its only remaining factory in Silicon Valley, cutting as many as 6,000 jobs.
The announcement comes a day after the world's largest maker of microprocessors used in personal computers slashed prices on a number of its chips and a week after it reported a decline in fourth-quarter revenue.
Intel said it would close two assembly test facilities in Penang, Malaysia, and one in Cavite, Philippines.
It will also halt production at a wafer fabrication facility in Hillsboro, Oregon, as well as its Santa Clara, California plant -- a factory connected to its headquarters and the only one left in Silicon Valley.
The actions will result in a reduction of 5,000 to 6,000 jobs, Intel said. It ended 2008 with around 84,000 employees.
Not all cuts at the affected plants will lead to job losses and some workers will be offered positions at other facilities, it said, adding that the restructuring will take place between now and the end of 2009.
"It's not a surprise given that their first quarter is probably going to be challenging, and they're trying to do what they can to cut costs in places that make sense," said Taunya Sell, an analyst at Ragen Mackenzie, a division of Wells Fargo.
Intel said it was not halting production at any of its more advanced factories.
Intel shares rose about 1 percent to $13.40 in after-hours trading, after rising 3.11 percent to close at $13.26 on the Nasdaq stock market.
Last week, Intel said its fourth-quarter revenue fell 23 percent from the year-ago period and profit tumbled 90 percent. It also held back on giving detailed quarterly forecasts, citing economic uncertainty.
Analysts have been wary about Intel's outlook for the year as chip sales slide. PC makers and other technology companies have been trimming inventory and cutting back on purchases.
Intel also faces competition from new, cheaper chips made by Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD.N).
On Tuesday, Intel said it was lowering prices on some of its processors, including price cuts of up to 40 percent on some of its higher-powered, faster quad-core chips.
AMD said earlier this month that it expected to post additional restructuring charges for fiscal 2008 and 2009.
Agencies
The announcement comes a day after the world's largest maker of microprocessors used in personal computers slashed prices on a number of its chips and a week after it reported a decline in fourth-quarter revenue.
Intel said it would close two assembly test facilities in Penang, Malaysia, and one in Cavite, Philippines.
It will also halt production at a wafer fabrication facility in Hillsboro, Oregon, as well as its Santa Clara, California plant -- a factory connected to its headquarters and the only one left in Silicon Valley.
The actions will result in a reduction of 5,000 to 6,000 jobs, Intel said. It ended 2008 with around 84,000 employees.
Not all cuts at the affected plants will lead to job losses and some workers will be offered positions at other facilities, it said, adding that the restructuring will take place between now and the end of 2009.
"It's not a surprise given that their first quarter is probably going to be challenging, and they're trying to do what they can to cut costs in places that make sense," said Taunya Sell, an analyst at Ragen Mackenzie, a division of Wells Fargo.
Intel said it was not halting production at any of its more advanced factories.
Intel shares rose about 1 percent to $13.40 in after-hours trading, after rising 3.11 percent to close at $13.26 on the Nasdaq stock market.
Last week, Intel said its fourth-quarter revenue fell 23 percent from the year-ago period and profit tumbled 90 percent. It also held back on giving detailed quarterly forecasts, citing economic uncertainty.
Analysts have been wary about Intel's outlook for the year as chip sales slide. PC makers and other technology companies have been trimming inventory and cutting back on purchases.
Intel also faces competition from new, cheaper chips made by Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD.N).
On Tuesday, Intel said it was lowering prices on some of its processors, including price cuts of up to 40 percent on some of its higher-powered, faster quad-core chips.
AMD said earlier this month that it expected to post additional restructuring charges for fiscal 2008 and 2009.
Agencies
Friday, December 12, 2008
Will nanotechnology transform information technology?
The nanotechnology industry is heralding a new world order and is estimated to grow over $1 trillion by 2015. Since it is distinguished by its interdisciplinary nature, can nanotechnology revolutionize information technology?
Even though it has already bringing in radical changes in the fields of healthcare, textile, paint, rubber, automobile industries, but lately also seeing advances on the IT front.
Talking to CXOtoday, Ashok Kumar Manoli, principal secretary IT, BT & Science & Technology, Government of Karnataka said, “without doubt, nanotechnology is making rapid advances in the IT industry since IT is one of the defining features of today’s world. Nano has made advances in IT even if it is not directly related.”
Recently, IBM researchers have created transistors out of carbon nanotubes that can outperform similar silicon transistors, a development that helps build the case that carbon may one day become a building block of computing.
IBM researchers have outlined how transistors made of carbon nanotubes -- long, thin strands of carbon molecules -- delivered more than twice the amount of electrical current at a faster rate than cutting-edge transistors made from silicon and metal, the basis for chips today.
Likewise, Samsung, world’s leading electronics major has added carbon nanotubes to LCD tellies. Reports indicate that Samsung has been showing off its technology, which uses carbon nanotubes to drop the cost and increase the performance of LCD screens.
According to Masum Khan, product manager of Tesscorn, a leading company in customized equipments for nano research said, “Samsung research institutes have developed a 15-inch prototype LCD screen that employs an array of carbon nanotubes. The nanotubes are used instead of conventional light sources, such as bulbs or light-emitting diodes.”
Khan said that telly technologies would lower the cost of LCD TVs in the coming years.
Nanotech in consumer electronics
Nanotube TV technology has been around for a while and has much in common with traditional cathode-ray sets. The downside is that they need new production lines and would be more expensive than LCDs and Plasma screens.
However, if they are used alongside LCDs they could be used to cut the cost the backlight of LCD TVs. The backlight makes up half the cost of a 40-inch LCD. Samsung said that the partial use of nanotubes could lower energy consumption and improve picture quality. An LCD takes 15 milliseconds to render a picture, while an LCD with carbon nanotubes as a backlight just four milliseconds.
Technologists now want to create an LCD with a carbon backlight that lasts 30,000 hours and puts out 60 to 70 lumens per watt.
The other advances in nanotechnology is the “Nanosilver” technology used in almost all consumer appliances like washing machines, refrigerators where in the nanosilver technology helps fighting bacteria so food remains fresh for longer. Khan said a number of products are already coming out in the market.
Car changes color as per outside climate
On the automobile front, nanotechnology is used to develop a paint that can change color depending on the outside weather. This is possible when a small change in done “nanovoltage” to the paints resulting in change of color. “A number of automobile manufacturers have already expressed interest in the technology but this is still in research stage,” adds Khan.
Nano materials in tyres
Likewise, rubber when mixed with nano materials tends to have longer life than the normal tyres and also less on the wear and tear.
Light bullet proof garments
On the textile front, we already seen garments that are stain resistant and wrinkle free but now armed forces will use garments made of carbon material that are very light and even bullet proof. These garments are also anti-bacterial that can be worn for a number of days.
Even though it has already bringing in radical changes in the fields of healthcare, textile, paint, rubber, automobile industries, but lately also seeing advances on the IT front.
Talking to CXOtoday, Ashok Kumar Manoli, principal secretary IT, BT & Science & Technology, Government of Karnataka said, “without doubt, nanotechnology is making rapid advances in the IT industry since IT is one of the defining features of today’s world. Nano has made advances in IT even if it is not directly related.”
Recently, IBM researchers have created transistors out of carbon nanotubes that can outperform similar silicon transistors, a development that helps build the case that carbon may one day become a building block of computing.
IBM researchers have outlined how transistors made of carbon nanotubes -- long, thin strands of carbon molecules -- delivered more than twice the amount of electrical current at a faster rate than cutting-edge transistors made from silicon and metal, the basis for chips today.
Likewise, Samsung, world’s leading electronics major has added carbon nanotubes to LCD tellies. Reports indicate that Samsung has been showing off its technology, which uses carbon nanotubes to drop the cost and increase the performance of LCD screens.
According to Masum Khan, product manager of Tesscorn, a leading company in customized equipments for nano research said, “Samsung research institutes have developed a 15-inch prototype LCD screen that employs an array of carbon nanotubes. The nanotubes are used instead of conventional light sources, such as bulbs or light-emitting diodes.”
Khan said that telly technologies would lower the cost of LCD TVs in the coming years.
Nanotech in consumer electronics
Nanotube TV technology has been around for a while and has much in common with traditional cathode-ray sets. The downside is that they need new production lines and would be more expensive than LCDs and Plasma screens.
However, if they are used alongside LCDs they could be used to cut the cost the backlight of LCD TVs. The backlight makes up half the cost of a 40-inch LCD. Samsung said that the partial use of nanotubes could lower energy consumption and improve picture quality. An LCD takes 15 milliseconds to render a picture, while an LCD with carbon nanotubes as a backlight just four milliseconds.
Technologists now want to create an LCD with a carbon backlight that lasts 30,000 hours and puts out 60 to 70 lumens per watt.
The other advances in nanotechnology is the “Nanosilver” technology used in almost all consumer appliances like washing machines, refrigerators where in the nanosilver technology helps fighting bacteria so food remains fresh for longer. Khan said a number of products are already coming out in the market.
Car changes color as per outside climate
On the automobile front, nanotechnology is used to develop a paint that can change color depending on the outside weather. This is possible when a small change in done “nanovoltage” to the paints resulting in change of color. “A number of automobile manufacturers have already expressed interest in the technology but this is still in research stage,” adds Khan.
Nano materials in tyres
Likewise, rubber when mixed with nano materials tends to have longer life than the normal tyres and also less on the wear and tear.
Light bullet proof garments
On the textile front, we already seen garments that are stain resistant and wrinkle free but now armed forces will use garments made of carbon material that are very light and even bullet proof. These garments are also anti-bacterial that can be worn for a number of days.
Friday, October 17, 2008
India's EDA industry growing at 30pc annually
Globally, India is amongst the fastest growing markets for EDA tools, along with USA and China. With the EDA market growing here at about 30 percent annually, Hewlett Packard, a leading EDA high performance computing platform solutions provider, is targeting the fast growing chip design centers in India.
On this occasion of the HP Intel Asia-Pacific EDA seminar, Brain Lowe, Alliance Marketing Manager of HP (Cupertino) with Faisal M. Paul, Country Manager (India) – HPC & OSLO of HP (India), spoke to Manu Sharma of CIOL Bureau the on various aspects of the EDA industry. Excerpts:
CIOL: What is EDA and what is its importance?
Brian Lowe: Electronic Design Automation (EDA) is the category of tools for designing and producing electronic systems ranging from printed circuit boards (PCBs) to integrated circuits (ICs). This is sometimes referred to as ECAD (electronic computer-aided design) or just CAD.
EDA is specifically for electronics, and concentrates on EDA used for designing integrated circuits. As chips grow larger and become more complex to design EDA becomes much more important at semiconductor companies.
CIOL: What are the trends in EDA?
BL: EDA computing complexity and very complex chip designs put heavy demands on computing resources such as CPU MIPS and memory. In addition, there is a need for reliable, scalable storage because of the huge chip design database.
There is also a need for setting up data centers and global grid that allow designers to tap into compute servers worldwide. This will allow the compute infrastructure to utilized very efficiently. Besides, this allows the designers and the company to scale the compute resources during various phases of a project.
There is also need to optimize data center design such as power, cooling, floor space, etc., and HP's HPC clustering technologies and blades fit the bill.
CIOL: What is HP's role in the EDA industry?
BL: Electronic product development organizations are constantly challenged to deliver advanced technology to market in less time. HP's focuses on inventiveness creates innovative high-performance technical computing solutions that allow design teams to maximize their EDA productivity.
HP has architected their technical computing solutions to make large memory capacity affordable. This allows engineers to synthesize and simulate larger sections of their designs, thereby maximizing designer productivity.
CIOL: Who is HP targeting in India and why?
Faisal M. Paul: HP provides leadership and innovation in high-performance computing (HPC) solutions for customer EDA design environments. For HP, India is among the fastest growing markets with many chip design firms setting up units in India. We are growing here at 30 percent at par with the USA and China.
HP partners with leading EDA software vendors to leverage HP's internal EDA design expertise and provide direction to HP R&D product groups.
CIOL: What does HP feel about the growing chip design industry in India?
FP: Chips have automated our lives with gizmos and designing this has been a good business proposition for Indian technology firms.
Without any hesitation, we can say that we are among the largest system integration vendors for EDA across the globe. We offer a broad range of Linux-based systems – workstations, servers and blades, together with leading edge IT data center solutions for the design environment.
CIOL: What is HP's innovation in EDA?
BL: As one of the world's largest electronic, R&D, design and manufacturing companies, HP has found innovative ways to employ technologies to address the pressures found in EDA design environments.
In fact, HP was one of the first computer vendors to embrace Linux as a practical and cost-effective alternative to proprietary solutions, including support for a myriad of EDA applications, across a wide range of platforms and flexible clustering solutions.
CIOL: Where does HP's C-class blade role come in?
BL: The HP BladeSystem c-Class enclosure is said to feature the world's fastest midplane at 5TBps of aggregate throughput and the first midplane to support 4X DDR InfiniBand, the industry's fastest blade server interconnect, which delivers up to 20GBps bandwidth in each direction especially meant for high performance computing for the chip design companies.
CIOL: Where does HP stand in the blade industry today?
BL: Following the introduction of HP C Class blade for high-performance computing during the third quarter of 2006, HP has outperformed all competitors with 85 percent growth. We are at the No. 1 position according to IDC Server tracker in Q4- 2006 in x86 Blades report, followed by IBM and Dell.
CIOL: How does the chip design automation in India look like?
FP: The Indian product market has already crossed the $1 billion mark. The chip automated our lives with electronic gizmos and has been a good business proposition for Indian technology firms. Now, we are moving towards the next step, designing tools that automate the chip designing process itself.
This growth is likely to accelerate with more players entering the fray in the coming years as electronics consumption goes up significantly.
At present, there are about seven major EDA companies, both multinational and Indian, operating in the country. Cadence, Mentor Graphics, Magma, Synopsys, Circuit Sutra, Sequence Design and SoftJin are all reporting growth. The India Semiconductor Association (ISA) expects more domestic players to start providing EDA tools to chip designers.
On this occasion of the HP Intel Asia-Pacific EDA seminar, Brain Lowe, Alliance Marketing Manager of HP (Cupertino) with Faisal M. Paul, Country Manager (India) – HPC & OSLO of HP (India), spoke to Manu Sharma of CIOL Bureau the on various aspects of the EDA industry. Excerpts:
CIOL: What is EDA and what is its importance?
Brian Lowe: Electronic Design Automation (EDA) is the category of tools for designing and producing electronic systems ranging from printed circuit boards (PCBs) to integrated circuits (ICs). This is sometimes referred to as ECAD (electronic computer-aided design) or just CAD.
EDA is specifically for electronics, and concentrates on EDA used for designing integrated circuits. As chips grow larger and become more complex to design EDA becomes much more important at semiconductor companies.
CIOL: What are the trends in EDA?
BL: EDA computing complexity and very complex chip designs put heavy demands on computing resources such as CPU MIPS and memory. In addition, there is a need for reliable, scalable storage because of the huge chip design database.
There is also a need for setting up data centers and global grid that allow designers to tap into compute servers worldwide. This will allow the compute infrastructure to utilized very efficiently. Besides, this allows the designers and the company to scale the compute resources during various phases of a project.
There is also need to optimize data center design such as power, cooling, floor space, etc., and HP's HPC clustering technologies and blades fit the bill.
CIOL: What is HP's role in the EDA industry?
BL: Electronic product development organizations are constantly challenged to deliver advanced technology to market in less time. HP's focuses on inventiveness creates innovative high-performance technical computing solutions that allow design teams to maximize their EDA productivity.
HP has architected their technical computing solutions to make large memory capacity affordable. This allows engineers to synthesize and simulate larger sections of their designs, thereby maximizing designer productivity.
CIOL: Who is HP targeting in India and why?
Faisal M. Paul: HP provides leadership and innovation in high-performance computing (HPC) solutions for customer EDA design environments. For HP, India is among the fastest growing markets with many chip design firms setting up units in India. We are growing here at 30 percent at par with the USA and China.
HP partners with leading EDA software vendors to leverage HP's internal EDA design expertise and provide direction to HP R&D product groups.
CIOL: What does HP feel about the growing chip design industry in India?
FP: Chips have automated our lives with gizmos and designing this has been a good business proposition for Indian technology firms.
Without any hesitation, we can say that we are among the largest system integration vendors for EDA across the globe. We offer a broad range of Linux-based systems – workstations, servers and blades, together with leading edge IT data center solutions for the design environment.
CIOL: What is HP's innovation in EDA?
BL: As one of the world's largest electronic, R&D, design and manufacturing companies, HP has found innovative ways to employ technologies to address the pressures found in EDA design environments.
In fact, HP was one of the first computer vendors to embrace Linux as a practical and cost-effective alternative to proprietary solutions, including support for a myriad of EDA applications, across a wide range of platforms and flexible clustering solutions.
CIOL: Where does HP's C-class blade role come in?
BL: The HP BladeSystem c-Class enclosure is said to feature the world's fastest midplane at 5TBps of aggregate throughput and the first midplane to support 4X DDR InfiniBand, the industry's fastest blade server interconnect, which delivers up to 20GBps bandwidth in each direction especially meant for high performance computing for the chip design companies.
CIOL: Where does HP stand in the blade industry today?
BL: Following the introduction of HP C Class blade for high-performance computing during the third quarter of 2006, HP has outperformed all competitors with 85 percent growth. We are at the No. 1 position according to IDC Server tracker in Q4- 2006 in x86 Blades report, followed by IBM and Dell.
CIOL: How does the chip design automation in India look like?
FP: The Indian product market has already crossed the $1 billion mark. The chip automated our lives with electronic gizmos and has been a good business proposition for Indian technology firms. Now, we are moving towards the next step, designing tools that automate the chip designing process itself.
This growth is likely to accelerate with more players entering the fray in the coming years as electronics consumption goes up significantly.
At present, there are about seven major EDA companies, both multinational and Indian, operating in the country. Cadence, Mentor Graphics, Magma, Synopsys, Circuit Sutra, Sequence Design and SoftJin are all reporting growth. The India Semiconductor Association (ISA) expects more domestic players to start providing EDA tools to chip designers.
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